Baskin’ Bangkok

Yippee, I am finally awake and out of the hotel, at a grand count of 3:30pm in the afternoon. This is a very long week, as I am spending my usual half a week in Singapore in Bangkok instead. Thanks to my brother’s wise decision booking me into a nice hotel, I had a really restful day following a 2.5hour spa. I woke up for a late but hot breakfast, then popped back into bed, slipping between slumber lands and writing lands now and then, while basking in the sunlight shining brilliantly into the air-conditioned room.

All weekends should be like this. I am now writing on the top floor of a very nice shopping mall, with a double volume space and natural daylight, surrounded by books and pretty decor.

I miss the little boys and babies and went shopping for toys and books for them. No luck for them, most are in Thai which I cannot read. Something suddenly occurred to me – how and when did we turn adult and start chasing after material / mercenary things in life?

I remember buying a beautiful Children’s art book about Monet and the frog when I was in Giverny. I got it for Oliver, because he can take care of things. Precious, expensive book it was. For Ruirui who is on the rougher side, I got him an inexpensive stack of cards, which can take some tough tumbling. When I gave the presents to the boys, and played with Ruirui (it takes two people to play cards), Oliver started crying. Bawling, in fact. I was taken by surprise. And the adult me asked him, “but yiyi already gave you a very nice book (it’s alot more expensive, you know?)” He just continued bawling, and my parents laughed at me/us. Sigh. I put him on my lap and read the book to him, but it really did not ease the situation at all. Fortunately, Ruirui gege being the big bro, offered to play his cards with him. Guess it was still too late.

Ah well. My sis laughed at me too, when she got home. I was just a little sulky about this wrong move. That was a year ago. It was only today, that I realise how this little episode showed much about how we adults may have been chasing over the “wrong” things. The importance of loving companionship and also the importance of matching what another really wants. Precious and expensive things are too much of a cop-out to what is really close to the individual human heart.

Well, it is not too late to realise it. Now I look back and I see how I have always bought gifts for people on the basis of “what they should like” or “what I would like to give them”, rather than “what they like”.